House Rules by Jodi Picoult

Costco is possibly one of the greatest stores.

Every time I go to Costco, I end up searching for a good book rather than helping my mom find groceries. Oops! Most of the time I look around, read the covers of countless books until I find that ONE. The last time I went however, the first book that caught my eye was House Rules by Jodi Picoult. I recently read My Sisters Keeper by her (those of you who saw the movie, I still recommend reading the book. It's totally different), and am always hearing from my sister Curry about how much she loves this author, so I started to read the inside covers.



I immediately became intrigued as I realized that it was a book about a boy with Asperger's syndrome (by the way, my computer shows that is spelled wrong-but its not). This was the extent of my knowledge on Asperger's:
-It is associated with autism.

That's all I knew. It intrigued me because I like reading books that teach me something new. And let me tell you..this book did just that! I am a very and I mean VERY slow reader-I like it that way! :) ha ha. But I could not put this book down. I read it in every class, every second I could, I read it late into the night, I took it to school, to dinner with my family, it never left my side.

I don't want to give any of the story away, so instead of expounding on these subjects like I would love to do, I'll make it brief. This book taught me so much about Asperger's. My current list of what I know about Asperger's would be SIGNIFICANTLY longer than my list above. Jodi Picoult brilliantly uses her story to incorporate these snippets of information on Asperger's. Not just to explain Jacob, the main character, but to explain all symptoms that 'Aspies' have.

That was my favorite thing about this book-gaining so much knowledge on a completely new subject. However, this book has it all. Really. It does. It's got romance, comedy, action, suspense, deep emotions, everything you could possibly ask for in a book. (In one of my classes I actually laughed out loud and the kid next to me looked at me like I was crazy..which made me laugh again ha ha)There is one thing that I am not a huge fan of though:( And that is the ending. Don't worry-it's got great twists, but the end is one of those that leaves you hanging..like you're not told exactly how things pan out. I'm not a huge fan of that. I like closure and a final solution. If you like that kind of ending, then do yourself a favor and read this book!! If not, read it regardless-I still loved it didn't I?

Time Well Spent...

Well the other day I was informed by two wonderful friends that it's time for a new post so..here goes girlies!

I can never think of anything to post about because..well honestly there is not much to tell. This post is pretty random and may seem like nothing exciting, (to any of you out there who happen to read my blog-love you whoever you are-keep reading!) but to me it is. I have this strange habit of watching tv series. NOT on tv however. Instead I watch them all online. The fact this this is very strange was also pointed out to me the other day ;) I am a faithful fan of many series. Gilmore Girls, Friends, The Office, Lost, Greek, One Tree Hill and Smallville. I have seen every episode of most of these shows. Every single one. Is that ridiculous or what?? Either that or I am in the process of watching them all.

The newest of these addictions for me is Smallville. Wow. This show is amazing. I had heard about it from many people, but quite frankly it sounded stupid, but one day when there were no new episodes of One Tree Hill or Greek (both are still currently airing on tv) up online, I decided to go out on a limb. And that was a good decision! Smallville is the story of Superman as he is growing up and using his powers. Like I said, I know it sounds so stupid, but I can't get enough of it. I watch at least 1 episode almost every day.

Anyway, all of these shows are amazing. So whenever you get bored-check out them out!

Can't a Girl Catch a Break?

It all started smack dab in the middle of one frigid February night. Falling asleep had been such a catastrophe since I could NOT get comfortable no matter how hard I tried, but finally, even through my discomfort, I fell asleep only to wake up about 2 hours later when I proceeded all through the night to wake up, throw up, lay back down...get back up and start all over again. By the time I was supposed to get ready for school, I knew there was absolutely no way I was going. So I text Mom-yes-she was in the house, merely a flight of stairs away-telling her that I wasn't going to school. The whole entire day I just consistently threw up. My body ached, I felt awful to say the least. But night rolled around and I was so relieved to learn that it was only a 24 hour bug.

I have always been told that you can only get the flu once a winter, but I am here to tell you that that is false! About two-three ish weeks later I woke up and during my 'get-ready-for-school" routine, I started to not feel well. Sure enough, before I left, I threw up. But I immediately felt better so I figured I was okay to go to school. Again..false. About a half an hour into choir first period I realized that school was a big mistake, so I quickly left class and went home to repeat my lovely day from a few weeks ago. This time I don't think I fully got over it because I still occasionally feel flu-y, and my stomach just hasn't felt right since..

OH but the fun does not stop just quite yet! :( While still feeling sick, I started to develop a bad sore throat and cold. Then at Cailey and Jill's family birthday dinner on Saturday night my voice started to leave and by Sunday morning it had completely vanished. Sunday night the glands in my throat were more swollen than I have ever felt in my life and it hurt so bad to swallow I could hardly eat.

And then today...I wake up and see that sometime in the night a very comfortable and "really really ridiculously good-looking" eye infection has taken over my left eye. BUT, I can't afford to miss yet another day of school, so I brace myself for a very long and agonizing day of feeling sick to my stomach, a sore throat, swollen glands, a cold, and and infected eye. My day went by surprisingly uneventful in regards to my deficiencies in the health department..until 4th period. The very last period of the day! All of a sudden, my ear started to throb. It increasingly got worse and worse until I seriously-not even kidding-almost started crying in the middle of class. Lucky enough class got out, took some pain medicine and since then it has started feeling better.

My body is under attack. And I can't handle it anymore. All I want to is to feel good again and quit being sick all the time! Please please please go away sicknesses! Pretty please?